Saudi photo journalist, dad of 5, sees hope not death in murder case

A Saudi photojournalist with five children does not expect to be executed after he was sentenced to death on murder charges. He believes the victim’s family would eventually pardon him and he had already told his kids to expect him home soon.

Hussein Daghreeri was jailed five years ago and sentenced to death last year after he was convicted of stabbing his relative to death during a fight in the southern Saudi province of Jazan. His relatives and friends have been exerting efforts to persuade the victim’s family to pardon him in return for diya (blood money).

“I killed my relative in a moment of anger. He was my relative and my best friend at the same time. Every time my children come to visit me in prison, I tell them I would be home soon. They do not know what is going on, but I have to be optimistic.”

A committee for the care of prisoners in the province said efforts are still being exerted to get the victim’s family to pardon Daghreeri, whose children are aged between 4 and 13 years, including four girls and one little boy.

“We are optimistic because the victim’s father is an educated scholar and he is closely related to the defendant,” the committee’s chairman  Ali Zaala told Sabq daily.

Convicted killers in Saudi Arabia, which strictly enforces Islamic law, can avert the gallows and walk free if pardoned by the victim’s family in return for blood money.

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